Authors

Eric Matthes

Eric Matthes teaches math and science at a small alternative school in southeast Alaska. He has lived in New Hampshire, New York City, and Alaska. He is the author of Python Crash Course, a bestselling introduction to programming in Python.

Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was born in 1935 to a peasant family in northeastern Tibet and was recognized at the age of two as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. The world's foremost Buddhist leader, he travels extensively, speaking eloquently in favor of ecumenical understanding, kindness and compassion, respect for the environment, and, above all, world peace.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926–2022) was​ a Vietnamese Buddhist Zen Master, poet, and peace activist and one of the most revered and influential spiritual teachers in the world​. Born in 1926, he became a Zen Buddhist monk at the age of sixteen. His work for peace and reconciliation during the war in Vietnam moved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. In Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh founded Van Hanh Buddhist University and the School of Youth for Social Service, a corps of Buddhist peace​ workers. Exiled as a result of his work for peace, he continued his humanitarian efforts, rescuing boat people and helping to resettle refugees. ​In 1982 he established Plum Village France, the largest Buddhist monastery in Europe​ and the hub of the international Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism​.​​ Over seven decades of teaching, he published a hundred books, which have been translated into more than forty languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide.

Steven Konkoly

Steven Konkoly is the Wall Street Journal and repeated #1 Amazon bestseller of over twenty thrillers. Steven graduated from the United States Naval Academy, receiving a bachelor of science in English literature. He served the next eight years on active duty, traveling the world as a naval officer assigned to various Navy and Marine Corps units. His extensive journey spanned the globe, including a two-year tour of duty in Japan—and travel to more than twenty countries throughout Asia and the Middle East. From enforcing United Nations sanctions against Iraq, as a maritime boarding officer in the Arabian Gulf, to directing aircraft bombing runs and naval gunfire strikes as a Forward Air Controller (FAC) assigned to a specialized Marine Corps unit, Steven's "in-house" experience with a wide range of regular and elite military units brings a unique authenticity to his thrillers. He still wakes up at "zero dark thirty" to write for most of the day. When "off duty," he spends as much time as possible outdoors or travelling with his family--and dog. Steven is an active member of the International Thriller Writers (ITW) and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) organizations. You can contact Steven directly by email (stevekonkoly@striblingmedia.com) or through his blog (www.stevenkonkoly.com). WORK BY STEVEN KONKOLY DEEP SLEEP SERIES—Conspiracy/Espionage/Black Ops thrillers "Stopping the most dangerous conspiracy to ever threaten America means believing the unthinkable. A modern day conspiracy thriller filled with twists and turns." 1.) Deep Sleep 2.) Coming Dawn (October 2022) THE RYAN DECKER BOOKS—Action-Adventure/Vigilante/Black Ops/Conspiracy thrillers "A heart-pumping thriller of betrayal, revenge, and conspiracy for fans of Tom Clancy and Lee Child." 1.) The Rescue 2.) The Raid 3.) The Mountain 4.) Skystorm THE BLACK FLAGGED SERIES—Black Ops/Political/Conspiracy/Espionage thrillers "A gritty, no-holds barred covert operations and espionage saga." 0.) INCEPTION (PREQUEL) 1.) ALPHA 2.) REDUX 3.) APEX 4.) VEKTOR 4.5) COVENANT 5.) OMEGA THE ALEX FLETCHER BOOKS—Action-Adventure/Conspiracy/Dystopian thrillers "A tense, thriller epic, chronicling the aftermath of an inconceivable attack on the United States." 1.) The Jakarta Pandemic 2.) The Perseid Collapse 3.) Event Horizon 4.) Point of Crisis 5.) Dispatches THE FRACTURED STATE SERIES—Dystopian/Conspiracy/Near future techothrillers "A near future conspiracy series set in a southwest United States on the verge of secession." 1.) Fractured State 2.) Rogue State THE ZULU VIRUS CHRONICLES: A BLACK FLAGGED THRILLER SERIES SPIN OFF—Bioweapons/Conspiracy/Post-apocalyptic thrillers "A modern thriller series based on the events surrounding an unthinkable bioweapons attack against the United States." 1.) Hot Zone 2.) Kill Box 3.) Fire Storm

Ken Follett

Ken Follett was only twenty-seven when he wrote the award-winning EYE OF THE NEEDLE, which became an international bestseller. His celebrated PILLARS OF THE EARTH was voted into the top 100 of Britain's best-loved books in the BBC's the Big Read and the sequel, WORLD WITHOUT END, was published to critical acclaim. He lives with his family in London and Hertfordshire.

Jennifer Moorhead

Jennifer graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Geaux Tigers! She has written and produced three indie short films that each made top 20 at the Louisiana Film Prize and were awarded at festivals around the world. She lives in Louisiana with her husband, two daughters, two dogs, one cat, and plenty of horses, mini ponies, and mini donkeys in a place where swamps and winding trails are the norm. When she’s not writing, she’s on a tennis court laughing and providing job security for her coach.

Elin Hilderbrand

Elin Hilderbrand first discovered the magic of Nantucket in July 1993. Her recipe for a happy island life includes running, writing at the beach, picnics at Eel Point with her three children, and singing "Home, Sweet Home" at the Club Car piano bar. Here's to Us is her seventeenth novel.

Chad Zunker

Chad Zunker is the Amazon Charts bestselling author of the stand-alone novel Family Money; the David Adams series, including An Equal Justice, which was nominated for the 2020 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, An Unequal Defense, and Runaway Justice; and The Tracker, Shadow Shepherd, and Hunt the Lion in the Sam Callahan series. He studied journalism at the University of Texas, where he was also on the football team. Chad has worked for some of the country’s most powerful law firms and has also invented baby products that are sold all over the world. He lives in Austin with his wife, Katie, and their three daughters and is hard at work on his next novel. For more information, visit www.chadzunker.com.

Lisa Jewell

LISA JEWELL was born in London in 1968. Her first novel, Ralph's Party, was the best- selling debut novel of 1999. Since then she has written another twenty novels, most recently a number of dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs, The Family Remains and The Night She Disappeared, all of which were Richard & Judy Book Club picks. Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over thirty languages. She lives in north London with her husband and two daughters.

Kent Haruf

Haruf was born in Pueblo, Colorado, the son of a Methodist minister. He graduated with a BA from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1965, where he would later teach, and earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1973. Before becoming a writer, Haruf worked in a variety of places, including a chicken farm in Colorado, a construction site in Wyoming, a rehabilitation hospital in Denver, a hospital in Phoenix, a presidential library in Iowa, an alternative high school in Wisconsin, as an English teacher with the Peace Corps in Turkey, and colleges in Nebraska and Illinois. He lived with his wife, Cathy, in Salida, Colorado until his death in 2014. He had three daughters from his first marriage. All of Haruf's novels take place in the fictional town of Holt, in eastern Colorado. Holt is based on Yuma, Colorado, one of Haruf's residences in the early 1980s. His first novel, The Tie That Binds (1984), received a Whiting Award and a special Hemingway Foundation/PEN citation. Where You Once Belonged followed in 1990. A number of his short stories have appeared in literary magazines. Plainsong was published in 1999 and became a U.S. bestseller. Verlyn Klinkenborg called it ""a novel so foursquare, so delicate and lovely, that it has the power to exalt the reader."" Plainsong won the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award and the Maria Thomas Award in Fiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. Eventide, a sequel to Plainsong, was published in 2004. Library Journal described the writing as ""honest storytelling that is compelling and rings true."" Jonathan Miles saw it as a ""repeat performance"" and ""too goodhearted."" On November 30, 2014, Haruf died at his home in Salida, Colorado at the age of 71. He died of interstitial lung disease. Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Brandon Sanderson

I’m Brandon Sanderson, and I write stories of the fantastic: fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers. Defiant, the fourth and final volume of the series that started with Skyward in 2018, comes out in November 2023, capping an already book-filled year that will see the releases of all four Secret Projects: Tress of the Emerald Sea, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and Secret Project Four (with its official title reveal coming October 2023). These four books were all initially offered to backers of the #1 Kickstarter campaign of all time. November 2022 saw the release of The Lost Metal, the seventh volume in the Mistborn saga, and the final volume of the Mistborn Era Two featuring Wax & Wayne. The third era of Mistborn is slated to be written after the first arc of the Stormlight Archive wraps up. In November 2020 we saw the release of Rhythm of War—the fourth massive book in the New York Times #1 bestselling Stormlight Archive series that began with The Way of Kings—and Dawnshard (book 3.5), a novella set in the same world that bridges the gaps between the main releases. This series is my love letter to the epic fantasy genre, and it’s the type of story I always dreamed epic fantasy could be. The fifth volume, Wind and Truth, is set for release in fall 2024. Most readers have noticed that my adult fantasy novels are in a connected universe called the Cosmere. This includes The Stormlight Archive, both Mistborn series, Elantris, Warbreaker, and various novellas available on Amazon, including The Emperor’s Soul, which won a Hugo Award in 2013. In November 2016 all of the existing Cosmere short fiction was released in one volume called Arcanum Unbounded. If you’ve read all of my adult fantasy novels and want to see some behind-the-scenes information, that collection is a must-read. I also have three YA series: The Rithmatist (currently at one book), The Reckoners (a trilogy beginning with Steelheart), and Skyward. For young readers I also have my humorous series Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, which had its final book, Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians, come out in 2022. Many of my adult readers enjoy all of those books as well, and many of my YA readers enjoy my adult books, usually starting with Mistborn. Additionally, I have a few other novellas that are more on the thriller/sci-fi side. These include the Legion series, as well as Perfect State and Snapshot. There’s a lot of material to go around! Good starting places are Mistborn (a.k.a. The Final Empire), Skyward, Steelheart,The Emperor’s Soul, and Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians. If you’re already a fan of big fat fantasies, you can jump right into The Way of Kings. I was also honored to be able to complete the final three volumes of The Wheel of Time, beginning with The Gathering Storm, using Robert Jordan’s notes. Sample chapters from all of my books are available at brandonsanderson.com—and check out the rest of my site for chapter-by-chapter annotations, deleted scenes, and more.

Jeffery Deaver

Jeffery Deaver is an international number-one bestselling author. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into over twenty-five languages. He has served two terms as president of Mystery Writers of America, and was recently named a Grand Master of MWA, whose ranks include Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Mary Higgins Clark and Walter Mosely. The author of over forty novels, three collections of short stories and a nonfiction law book, and a lyricist of a country-western album, he’s received or been shortlisted for dozens of awards. His "The Bodies Left Behind" was named Novel of the Year by the International Thriller Writers association, and his Lincoln Rhyme thriller "The Broken Window" and a stand-alone, "Edge," were also nominated for that prize. "The Garden of Beasts" won the Steel Dagger from the Crime Writers Association in England. He’s also been nominated for eight Edgar Awards by the MWA. Deaver has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, the Strand Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Raymond Chandler Lifetime Achievement Award in Italy. His book "A Maiden’s Grave" was made into an HBO movie starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin, and his novel "The Bone Collector" was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. Lifetime aired an adaptation of his "The Devil’s Teardrop." NBC television recently aired the nine-episode prime-time series, "Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector." You can find out more about Jeffery on his website www.jefferydeaver.com, Facebook page facebook.com/JefferyDeaver, and follow him on Twitter @JefferyDeaver.